Gardening for Amateurs 



fl Page of Helpful Hints 



CLEANING Rustic Work. It is 

 occasionally found that the pergola or 

 other rustic work about the garden 

 requires cleaning. The best things to use 

 are soap, tepid water, and a good scrubbing 

 brush, but if the wood is old and inhabited 

 by woodlice or other insects a paraffin liquid 

 will be found useful for cleaning them. If 

 the insects are causing trouble or annoyance, 

 all loose bark should be removed ; in fact, I 

 strongly recommend that rustic work should 

 always be made without bark, as this practice 

 reduces the number of crevices in which 

 pests can hide or breed. Half a cupful of 

 soft soap may be placed in a large pail of 

 tepid water and then a like quantity of 

 paraffin oil well stirred into it until a uni- 

 form mixture is obtained. Sponge this 

 over all the rustic work about the garden in 

 March ; the odour passes off in a day or 

 two. 



Tar in Road Grit. The sweepings or 

 scrapings which come from road cleaning 

 nowadays often contain tar or tar products. 

 If these come in contact with growing 

 plants they have a scorching effect, and 

 check the growth more or less. Store the 

 grit and make use of it in autumn or winter ; 

 it should then be dug into the soil and its 

 antiseptic and insecticidal properties made 

 use of. Plants bedded out in spring will 

 suffer no harm. It can also be spread among 

 established plants during winter, and dug 

 into the soil. To get rid of the tar pro- 

 ducts for any special purpose, spread the 

 grit out thinly on some dry place and expose 

 to the weather for three or four weeks. 

 To test for tar in road scrapings, place a 

 handful of the grit in a little boiling 

 water and stir it up. The odour or the 

 coloured oily film on top will show the 

 presence of tar. 



Soaps in Gardening. The gardener has 

 to use soap for many different things. He 

 is advised that soft soap is an excellent 

 insecticide for aphides, or it is given as an 

 ingredient of certain mixtures. He has to 

 wash his pots, his greenhouse, or his tools, 

 and his daily ablutions are a necessity. In 



all cases he will find that disinfectant soaps 

 are much superior to the commoner varie- 

 ties. Lifebuoy or carbolic soap, or Cyllin, 

 Kerol, and Izal disinfectant hard and soft 

 soaps should be used, and the small amount 

 of disinfectant substance in them will 

 increase their value and their worth for all 

 horticultural work. They are not much 

 more expensive than ordinary soaps, and 

 will be found penetrating insecticides and 

 cleansing agents to work into cracks and 

 crevices about the garden. Use boiling 

 water to dissolve the hard soaps. 



Lawn Sand. Lawn sand is a mixture 

 which is employed to assist the growth of 

 grass on a lawn and at the same time to keep 

 down weeds. The active principle of these 

 sands is either sulphate of ammonia or sul- 

 phate of iron. Some " sands " contain the 

 former, as much as 30 per cent, having been 

 found, and they are excellent for assisting 

 the growth of grass so that weeds are 

 stifled and prevented from disfiguring the 

 lawn. The sulphate of iron mixtures are 

 more for killing weeds and giving the grass 

 a rich colour than for use as a manure. 

 These sands can be bought in prepared form 

 with full directions for use. A good lawn 

 sand can be made by mixing \ Ib. of sul- 

 phate of iron (called " copperas " in shops), 

 \\ Ib. of sulphate of ammonia, and from 

 10 to 15 Ib. of any kind of sand ; grind 

 the chemicals into a fine powder, and mix 

 thoroughly. The cost of that quantity, 

 charging nothing for the sand, will be 4d., 

 and it will prove a rich manurial substance, 

 able to kill Daisies and other weeds. Spread 

 it evenly over the lawn at from 2 to 4 oz. per 

 square yard, or dust some into the heart of 

 each weed to kill it. 



To Kill Tree Stumps. The roots of trees 

 which are sawn down are difficult to remove 

 until they have decayed a little. Bore a hole 

 into the wood where it was sawn across and 

 pour into this, now and again, some strong 

 chemical like vitriol, weed-killer, or brine. 

 These will accelerate the process of decay and 

 the roots may be removed without further 

 difficulty. 



